Forum is a traditional commercial property in the heart of Helsinki’s central business district. First Forum was built for the 1952 Olympic games, intended as a temporary structure arranged around a central atrium. Present building was completed in 1985, based on an architectural competition from 1977.
The competition represented a significant extension to the shopping center, engaging surrounding properties and addressing height differences of the site with new pedestrian connections and public spaces. The glazed corner of Mannerheimintie and Simonkatu has become a landmark.
Forum’s properties changes and improvement works were developed and designed in 2009-2015, with a close collaboration between the client, commercial consultants, construction project management and city officials. The shopping center remained in use during the whole construction period between 2012-2015.
Resulting network provides access from different levels of the shopping center to the surrounding street and underground passage grids, and directly connects levels from the existing underground parking facility to the rearranged Kukontori square six stories above. New shopping floors were created on the second basement level, former storage floor, and on Kukontori level, around the central atrium.
Existing stone plates were retained and reused when possible. Forum was named the best shopping center in the Nordic countries in 2017, by the Nordic Association of Shopping Centers NCSC.
